It was about a month ago. I had a chance to talk with one of my coworkers. We were chitchatting about this and that. It was then that my radar suddenly raised an alarm and rang a bell... Wait, what did you say? That was my reaction. I couldn't believe I was hearing something that could be a really, really big idea.
It is about a redeeming system. Yeah, I know there are a lot of them. Starbucks, Tully, and CoffeeBeans have those. Airlines have their own frequent flier programs. AMEX has it's own redeeming system. I accept that.
But, wait a minute. Is there a system that people can use cross business wise? Let's say, I went McDonald for a new menu, McRib with french fries. Of course, I'd like to have something more than hamburger which is I want to know if I can store some points and redeem it later. I'd like to know if I go to Starbucks and use and points that I accumulated from McDonald. I'd like to use the redeeming points I collected from Costco shopping towards an airline ticket for a trip to Paris. I want to get some discount when I go to Cheesecake Factory because I've been there multiple times before.
There are so many of these local redeeming systems that are not usable cross-business. I also don't want to have 567 redeeming cards in my little wallet. I just want to have one card and one system.
What about businesses? Why does each business have to come up with their own system when they can just register themselves and configure the rules. They can easily become a member of the Global Redeeming System and let people know that we are a member of GRS, therefore, you can use the card you already have to accumulate points. Some business may want to make an alliance so that customers can use the redeeming points from each other.
New small businesses can easily participate in this program without creating an expensive infrastructure. Just visit the website and become a member. One more thing to do. Just put a sign, "GRS member" out on the window where people can see it like "Zagat rated" for restaurants.
If we are talking about 1% redeeming point for every purchase being made in the United States, considering the GDP is around $15,000,000,000,000. We're talking about $150,000,000,000 business each year. It's an astronomical number, isn't it?
Is it realistic? Maybe, to some extent. Will business adopt this system by replacing what they have? I'm very positive, because there is a huge leverage effect by joining forces and control their rules. Will people like it? Of course? I'd love to use it and use my redeeming points towards travel every year. If I spend $50,000 a year for whatever reason, I would get $500 bonus airline ticket? Yeah...
Well, it maybe just another dream...
zzz
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